Fun & Awesome Critters, Crawlers or reccuring NPCs to include in a game

[Eradis]

I thought it would be fun to introduce to the world various NPCs that are memorable and fun to interact with. I got the idea after Nifft mentioned a Gem eater Faerie Dragon not too long ago in another post.


For example, let's say a faerie dragon stole an emerald from an adventurer, and ate it. You pick up the faerie dragon as a companion, but the little fellow is recognized by the adventurer, who demands compensation. Going forward, you know that the faerie dragon eats gemstones -- this may be a complication which reduces treasure a bit in the future. (I used this, it was pretty cute.)

The idea behind a thread about this is to inspire people with intriguing NPCs, to help create authentic ones for Game Masters and also to spice up the interaction from the Players. So, what about we share a few here, and add some fun way to interact with certain of them as a player too?

Interesting NPCs


Gem Eating Faerie Dragon with a bad reputation
Spectral/Fey-like Feline that blinks/teleports around, sneaking around the party for amusement
Psychic Child with fearsome powers linked to his emotions
Annoying Fan who always want to hang with a PC or try too much to make love flow both ways
Leprechaun borrowing money with promise of giving it back through its mostly unsuccessful schemes
Imp asking for obscure favors for promise of power
Talking Eldritch Raven seeking bright and shiny object with his eyes stuck on his prized jewel: a jewel owned by a PC
Narcissistic pajama wearing mage that tinker with the style (not necessary in a good way) of what he enchants
Little Homunculus with an entertainer's flair and a joker's mindset
Childish not-so-stealthy character controlling a construct from nearby
Orc dentist with great tusks and fascination for prized teeth
Mad Powerful Wizard with a tendency to be clumsy and mistake powerful artifact for other magical gizmo
Doppelganger cultist taking form of allies, killed by its hands
Long Death Monk using the heroes to gather pieces of a portal to another plance
Cryptic Widow Medusa (secretly) and her elderly blind elven maiden, patron of the party
...


I will try to update the list as we go on, but I will probably keep the description short. Feel free to elaborate though!


Nota: If anyone who posted an idea and feels like it was synthesize in a different way than which you intended, feel free to notify me, either directly in the post or via private message. After all, the list is a collective one.

[SkylarkR6]

I had a down on his luck leprechaun who would randomly appear and ask the characters for a couple spare gold to help him get back on his feet, promising repayment. This usually happened when they got back to town after looting some place.

I ended that campaign with "also, Paedrig shows up and pays you back 129 gold".

[Eradis]

I had a down on his luck leprechaun who would randomly appear and ask the characters for a couple spare gold to help him get back on his feet, promising repayment. This usually happened when they got back to town after looting some place.

I ended that campaign with "also, Paedrig shows up and pays you back 129 gold".

Interesting. Did that Paedrig do anything to convince the party or it was mostly begging?

[SkylarkR6]

Started off begging, then evolved into him telling them about his newest get rich scheme and investment plans that never seemed to work out. So they kept helping the little guy and I kept writing down how much they gave him, just in case one of them would ask(they tried to trip me up with little things like that). It was fun at the time.
There was a "family shipping business to invest in" which was a dumb farm boy and his old cart.
Becoming an arms dealer with "unlimited supply at next to no cost!!"(gathering sling stones)
And a couple others I don't remember ATM but I used him once to pass on a plothook or two. They liked him

[Eradis]

I added it to the list! I might make an Imp version of this guy in my campaign promising new powers as long as the party keeps feeding him gold, souls, or whatever. That or an altered version of the Raven in Dark Souls could be nice too.

[Unoriginal]

Do you want to hear about that kind of characters who appeared in a session only? Or do those we invented but didn't use work too?

[Eradis]

Do you want to hear about that kind of characters who appeared in a session only? Or do those we invented but didn't use work too?

All works! It's an open discussion with inspiration as the main purpose. You can see this as a collective brain storm if you'd like.

[Dr. Cliché]

I had a town mage I quite liked - Sebrask the Indecisive.

They were looking for a mage to help them with something (can't remember exactly what), and so knocked on the door of his tower. The door was answered by a mage wearing red robes, red slippers and carrying a red staff (though they noticed that it was just a wooden staff with cheap paint, some of which had chipped away).

He announced himself as 'Sebrask the Red' and asked what he could do for them.

As they conversed, he would announce his name in basically every other sentence, changing his title each time.

"Fear not, warriors, for I, Sebrask the Great, am no stranger to these these matters."

"A map? You've come to the right place. I, Sebrask the Cartographer, will be happy to oblige."

"Of course! I, Sebrask the Introspective, can assist you with this."

(He also got through several other colours - Sebrask the Green, Sebrask the Greyish-Blue etc.)


Also, one of the party asked him to enchant something of theirs (a pair of boots, IIRC). He did so but thought they looked a little drab, so he also 'augmented them with the colour pink' for good measure.


I only ever used him once, during one very short adventure. He had no relevance to the plot or any such - he was just a random town mage. However, of all my characters and NPCs, he's the one my players always remember (with some fondness, I think). They've requested more than once that I either bring him back in a campaign or else use him as a PC in someone else's game.

[Eradis]

I had a town mage I quite liked - Sebrask the Indecisive.

[...]

I only ever used him once, during one very short adventure. He had no relevance to the plot or any such - he was just a random town mage. However, of all my characters and NPCs, he's the one my players always remember (with some fondness, I think). They've requested more than once that I either bring him back in a campaign or else use him as a PC in someone else's game.

This is exactly the kind of NPC that is worth naming! Going by the description alone I was sure the enchantment would have been as cheap as his staff, but hey, appearances can be deceiving. Last NPC I put in a Scy-fi settings of LoD, was a scientist. The guy had nothing really extraordinary, he was mostly there to help the PCs with small tasks at the beginning of the campaign, but one of the players was so suspicious of him that he was plotting at every turn to get rid of him by killing him even though he saved his life twice. Now the NPC is gone for a while and they are still suspecting him to be behind a huge scheme, so I might as well bring him back for the finale. Turns out that sometimes average NPC can be made memorable by the players themselves, which is cool too.

[Unoriginal]

All works! It's an open discussion with inspiration as the main purpose. You can see this as a collective brain storm if you'd like.

Well, there was this plot hook I wrote for the "Let's Read the Monster Manual" thread:



Busby's Friendly Games and Wonderous Competitor-Driven Challenges Extravaganza!

The Homunculus Busby, having some free time while its master is in vacation, decides to have some fun and organize a small competition where all passerbies are invited, the adventurers included. Race through the forest, game of chess, horseshoes contest, boxing! If one of the contestants can beat all of its challenges, Busby will give them one or two valuable potions from its master's reserve.

Basically, I imagined Busby to be this little Homunculus with an entertainer's flair and a joker's mindset, who enjoyed his semi-autonomous existence in a kinda-hedonistic fashion, smoking, drinking and eating as it pleased it, all while wearing some self-made clothes with a blue coat and a big, somewhat floppy brown top hat. The Homunculus would spend its time when not serving its creator having fun, though not at the expense of others, simply by putting together activities inspired by its strange ideas.

The thing is to not make him an annoying mischief-making small critter, more like a bon-vivant with odd ideas who just happen to be a tiny creature.


I had a town mage I quite liked - Sebrask the Indecisive.
[...]

Sounds pretty nice. I like moments like that, though sometime I feel like the people with whom I play tend to overplay the joke too much. Like, there is an annoying gnome wizard/inventor in the campaign I've played in for a long time now, and sometime the other spend half a session just getting into a snide pissing match with the guy because they think it's fun.

Not to say re-using memorable NPCs is a bad thing, of course, but like many things there is a time and place to do so, and if they're overplayed the nice feeling turn sour.

[Eradis]

Not to say re-using memorable NPCs is a bad thing, of course, but like many things there is a time and place to do so, and if they're overplayed the nice feeling turn sour.

Well spoken. Especially in murder hobo groups when even the most serious of character can be turned to ridicule in an instant.

I do like the distinction you've made about the homunculus non being especially annoying but more entertainer. My first though would have been towards the prior. It made me think of the RC knight I read about on a reddit post. The idea is to have a construct knight blocking a bridge or passageway and being controlled by a not-so-stealthy kid hiding in bushes. I'm paraphrasing, but I remember the original poster something of the sort: "Don't pay attention to the rumbling bushes, there is no one there! I am the threat not my mast... erm... Prepare to die?".

I'm glad to see that list growing! Feel free to add any more notable character you've encounter or wishes you did. Could even be a Player Character that made his mark that could be turned into a NPC.

[Dr. Cliché]

Sounds pretty nice. I like moments like that, though sometime I feel like the people with whom I play tend to overplay the joke too much. Like, there is an annoying gnome wizard/inventor in the campaign I've played in for a long time now, and sometime the other spend half a session just getting into a snide pissing match with the guy because they think it's fun.

Not to say re-using memorable NPCs is a bad thing, of course, but like many things there is a time and place to do so, and if they're overplayed the nice feeling turn sour.

Yeah, this is partially why I've never reused the guy.

[Eunostus]

A favorite NPC in my campaign is an orc dentist who travels from town to town, treating the rich and powerful. He's quite cheerful and tends to stroke his glorious white tusks when he's thinking. Naturally, he is obsessed with his profession and collects the teeth of all sorts of creatures. He's more than happy to pay the PC's for any interesting skulls they bring him for his collection. This makes the dragonborn bard PC terrified of him, because the orc dentist keeps expressing his fascination for his draconic teeth.

[Eradis]

A favorite NPC in my campaign is an orc dentist who travels from town to town, treating the rich and powerful. He's quite cheerful and tends to stroke his glorious white tusks when he's thinking. Naturally, he is obsessed with his profession and collects the teeth of all sorts of creatures. He's more than happy to pay the PC's for any interesting skulls they bring him for his collection. This makes the dragonborn bard PC terrified of him, because the orc dentist keeps expressing his fascination for his draconic teeth.

Wow! I love this one, especially if there is some hints that he may or may not have forcefully taken such prize by force in the past. And the tusk stroking is a neat feature to help imagine the orc. Simple yet, fascinating. Thank you for this good addition!

[the_brazenburn]

Where to start, where to start...
My party's favorite so far has been Fizbop Thundertoes. He is a completely insane high-level wizard loosely based off Fizban from the Dragonlance chronicles (i.e. casting fireballs at the most inappropriate times.) He always seems to show up whenever they need help, and usually tries to rope them into his mad quests to catch the deadly Squee Rell. He accidently stuck his cape on backward with Sovereign Glue, so when he commanded an Invisble Stalker to help him fly by lifting him off the ground by his cape, he flies around upside-down. His most recent aquisition was a purple Ioun stone that flies around his head.He mistakenly believes it to be rock candy and constantly tries to lick it in the middle of an important dialogue. I love screwing with my players.

[Eradis]

Where to start, where to start...
My party's favorite so far has been Fizbop Thundertoes. He is a completely insane high-level wizard loosely based off Fizban from the Dragonlance chronicles (i.e. casting fireballs at the most inappropriate times.) He always seems to show up whenever they need help, and usually tries to rope them into his mad quests to catch the deadly Squee Rell. He accidently stuck his cape on backward with Sovereign Glue, so when he commanded an Invisble Stalker to help him fly by lifting him off the ground by his cape, he flies around upside-down. His most recent aquisition was a purple Ioun stone that flies around his head.He mistakenly believes it to be rock candy and constantly tries to lick it in the middle of an important dialogue. I love screwing with my players.

I can only imagine him trying to figure out why he could so easily filled up his bottomless bag which is actually a standard bag with fancy straps. That or send the PCs on a quest to unraveled the mystery of his actual portal-to-another-plane bag that he confuse with a bag of holding.

[The Shadowdove]

Dopplegangers.

I played in a homebrew a few years back with a DM who loved conspiracy.

Dopplegangers were a reoccurring monster. A cult infatuated with the idea of uncovering clues left behind by the mad got Cyric, and why he left him behind. Often the party would work alongside an npc, developing a relationship and similar kind of goal/losses, only to find out later they had been replaced long before.

Also involved was a monk of long death who was infatuated with the passing moment because he'd uncovered an item that cursed him with immortality and secretly wanted to undo it. He'd trap the adventures but inevitably let them live, taking something from them or an NPC ally, before disappearing again. He was collecting some fragments that'd been stolen from Mechanus, each a dangerous puzzle that opened a portal.

There was a constant looming feeling of the world being slowly taken over or going mad as these artifacts were uncovered, and a need to stop their long death monks ally who kept whisking allies off to other planes of existence.

[Kuulvheysoon]

Am NPC that I'm intending on using in my next campaign is Lady Eurayle. She's a mid-thirties noble lady who resides in her country manor all alone after her husband died. He was a wizard of no small skill, and the house is filled with unseen servants, with the only other person being an elderly blind elven woman, who was her nurse as a child. Eurayle always wears a thick black cowl in her grief, and will prove to be a good patron for the players.

Twist - Lady Eurayle is actually a good-aligned Medusa who wears the cowl to prevent anyone from turning into stone. I haven't yet decided if she was always a medusa, or she was cursed into being one. She has a courtyard full of petrified people that she's ashamed of, but can't bring herself to get rid of.

[Eradis]

Dopplegangers were a reoccurring monster. A cult infatuated with the idea of uncovering clues left behind by the mad got Cyric, and why he left him behind. Often the party would work alongside an npc, developing a relationship and similar kind of goal/losses, only to find out later they had been replaced long before.

Doppelgangers always bring interesting chaos and long lasting suspicious with a pinch of paranoia. It is especially fun when the players, after unveiling the truth about the identity of one of their kind, have some doubt about the real alignment of that particular person. Even if it is known that the doppelganger killed the person whom appearance it took.

An order of shadow monks sounds terrifying. I pictured them as shadowy figures such as the shadow army of the Jacky Chan animated series. Just knowing you are up against that will make even an almighty knight on permanent guard.

EDIT: Sorry, I read your post but couldn't answer on the moment, so I went by memory and mine loves to play tricks on me. The Long Death Monk cursed by immortality is nice. Sickening the world in his wake. Does he have a reason to let the adventurers go? Could he be using them as pawns for his master plan?


Am NPC that I'm intending on using in my next campaign is Lady Eurayle. She's a mid-thirties noble lady who resides in her country manor all alone after her husband died. He was a wizard of no small skill, and the house is filled with unseen servants, with the only other person being an elderly blind elven woman, who was her nurse as a child. Eurayle always wears a thick black cowl in her grief, and will prove to be a good patron for the players.

The mysterious Widow Medusa is quite something too. The PCs might uncover the face behind that cowl by accident by stumbling upon a document perhaps. Nonetheless, I am thrill about the idea of a manor filled with servants which are strangely never seen. Do you already have your idea behind them? Ghost would be an obvious choice, but something else might prove more surprising for the party maybe?

[Unoriginal]

Unseen Servant is a very common utility spell. It basically create an invisible pseudo-being that helps you with mundane tasks.

On the subject of the Medusa, Kuulvheysoon, I like your idea. Personally, I would make so that Lady Eurayle is a Sorcerer, who is as powerful as her husband was, and have the PCs first seek her due to wanting to learn about a magical issue or an adventure she was involved in during her youth.

Bonus point if her Sorcery allows her to remove her cowl without petrificating anyone, temporarily. Then she could use some illusion for the hair and explain her reptilian traits by her Draconic heritage.

It would convince most PCs the weird things in her home are just a red herring, which is good for the reveal.



For my part, I was thinking of having a NPC the PCs encounter early on be transformed into a Medusa during the campaign... and absolutely loving it for all the perks it gives. Maybe I'll make her an ambitious wizard who get cursed while unearthing some ruins.

[Eradis]

Unseen Servant is a very common utility spell. It basically create an invisible pseudo-being that helps you with mundane tasks.

On the subject of the Medusa, Kuulvheysoon, I like your idea. Personally, I would make so that Lady Eurayle is a Sorcerer, who is as powerful as her husband was, and have the PCs first seek her due to wanting to learn about a magical issue or an adventure she was involved in during her youth.

Perhaps it is a common spell, but I have little to no choice altering my world so it doesn't fit D&D standards (still keeping the rules though) because I have some players too inclined on being meta that they often use knowledge of the game that the characters shouldn't be aware of (ex.: Oh, X spell was cast, that mean this NPC is at least Y level, we better back out instead of taking him out as we planned). I love the idea behind the unseen servants regardless of the existence of a spell. If the PC learn about that spell, fine, but it doesn't mean it is what is behind those specific servants.

Otherwise, the lure of a grimoire used by the late husband could be something that attracts the PCs to seek out the Lady, and they could realize after a few visit with a couple of clever hints that she was in fact the powerful one. That fits most of the 20th century mentality of our world. It's fun to put some in a fantasy world too. Still, so far this particular NPC and its variant wouldn't fit in my campaign just yet unfortunately.